Their agitation has no other object in view but to
establish a reign of terror throughout the United States." A
large number of thoughtful people all over the land were
beginning to share this view.
In New York City a new sort of agitation was devised in the
winter of 1913-14 under the captaincy of a young man who quite
suddenly found himself widely advertised. Frank Tannenbaum
organized an "army of the unemployed," commandeered Rutgers
Square as a rendezvous, Fifth Avenue as a parade ground, and
churches and parish houses as forts and commissaries. Several of
the churches were voluntarily opened to them, but other churches
they attempted to enter by storm. In March, 1914, Tannenbaum led
several score into the church of St. Alphonsus while mass was
being celebrated. Many arrests followed this bold attempt to
emulate the French Revolutionists. Though sympathizers raised
$7500 bail for the ringleader, Tannenbaum loyally refused to
accept it as long as any of his "army" remained in jail. Squads
of his men entered restaurants, ate their fill, refused to pay,
and then found their way to the workhouse. So for several months
a handful of unemployed, some of them professional unemployed,
held the headlines of the metropolitan papers, rallied to their
defense sentimental social sympathizers, and succeeded in calling
the attention of the public to a serious industrial condition.
At Granite City, Illinois, another instance of unrest occurred
when several thousand laborers in the steel mills, mostly
Roumanians and Bulgarians, demanded an increase in wages.
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